The present invention relates to mining equipment, and particularly continuous underground mining machines.
Traditionally, excavation of hard rock in the mining and construction industries, has taken one of either two forms, explosive excavation or rolling edge disc cutter excavation. Explosive mining entails drilling a pattern of holes of relatively small diameter into the rock being excavated, and loading those holes with explosives. The explosives are then detonated in a sequence designed to fragment the required volume of rock for subsequent removal by suitable loading and transport equipment. However, the relatively unpredictable size distribution of the rock product formed complicates downstream processing.
Mechanical fragmentation of rock eliminates the use of explosives; however, rolling edge cutters require the application of very large forces to crush and fragment the rock under excavation. On a conventional underground mining machine, a cutter head liberates material from a mine wall. The material falls to the mine floor under the cutter head and is directed onto a conveyor for transportation away from the mine wall. This operation produces large amounts of dust and debris and results in loss of mined material.